Reading Minds
by AWriterOfSomeThings
Summary: Neo is bored. Very, very bored. So she figures she'll explore the fair grounds. Fun, right? Not at all. However, there does seem to be something interesting here. Well, more like someone interesting... Set during/after Vol 3 Ep 2. Oneshot.


**A/N: So, I was laying in my bed when suddenly... an idea popped in my head. That idea was... this story. I got the idea shortly after I re-watched Vol 3 Ep 2. I hope you all enjoy this oneshot, I was really excited for it. Yes, a oneshot.**

 **Also, Ren and Neo are two of my favorite characters from the series.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY. This most likely would have been canon if I did. So, it's a fairly good thing I don't own RWBY.  
**

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Neo, who was still in her disguise, decided to explore the fair grounds. Why? Well that's simple, she was... BORED! Her match was fun, she got to beat the crap out of people. The only problem was that she wasn't allowed to kill them. Her bloodlust would go unsatisfied for who knows how long now! But that's going off topic, she was bored, she figured there might be something fun on the fair grounds, and boy was she wrong. She had been exploring for a while now and she did not find anything fun going on.

Just as she was about to give up, she happened to come across an area with a bench. Yeah, boring. However, her attention was directed to the boy on the bench, the back of his head to be more precise. A magenta stripe on long black hair that was captured in a ponytail, a primarily green tailcoat with bits of black, gold, and pink, and white pants. The boy was none other than... Lie Ren.

The reason she recognized the boy was because she had watched his team's battle earlier. But she only watched the match because of one person, Pyrrha Nikos. The only reason she recognized this boy is because it was impossible not to notice him. But let's make one thing clear, she was not impressed at all by this young man. There was only one reason she noticed him... he was a horrid fighter! Even the boy, Jaune arc, who she could tell had hardly any fighting experience, did better than him. Just from watching the match, she concluded this boy was the worst fighter on their team. Although, she could see this boy possessed a lot of potential, it was all untapped potential.

'Such a waste.' She sighed, shaking her head as she thought that.

She turned around and was about to walk away, when she heard the boy's calm voice say.

"I wasn't that bad."

She froze on the spot. There was absolutely no way he said that to her! It was impossible, she didn't say anything, she couldn't! She didn't make any noise, she was an assassin after all, he shouldn't have known she was there. And even if he did, he definitely shouldn't have known her thoughts!

She shook her head, telling herself that he wasn't talking to her. She concluded he was using his scroll to talk to someone else.

'There's no way he was talking to me.' With that thought in her head, she started on her way to leave again. However, the boy's calm voice once again stopped her.

"I was talking to you."

She quickly spun around, looking at the back of the boy's head with narrowed eyes. She had no idea what was going on, and boy did she hate not knowing things. She just stood there, eyeing the boy suspiciously. It shouldn't be possible for him to know what she was thinking.

"Why don't you come and join me." Ren asked politely as he gestured for her to sit beside him.

She slowly and hesitantly complied with his request. Once she sat down, she continued to stare at him, but instead of suspicion and doubt, she stared with curiosity and interest. Obviously the boy meant no harm, at least she couldn't sense any ill will coming from him. She was now just intrigued by him.

Feeling her gaze on him, Ren opened his eyes and turned his head towards her, revealing his beautiful magenta eyes to her. She was sitting there with half closed eyes, a small smile on her face, and her head slightly tilted.

"You're curious, aren't you?" He asked, a small polite smile on his face.

She responded with a slow nodding of her head.

"You can't speak, can you?"

This time, she responded by shaking her head and tapping her throat.

"Ah, then it must have been refreshing to have a sort of conversation with me." He gave a light chuckle as he said that.

Once again, she nodded her head, her small smile never fading.

"So, you want to know how I can read your mind, right?"

That was the very thing she was curious about, so, she vigorously nodded her head.

"Well, it's not exactly like that, I can't read your mind."

His explanation caused her face to scrunch in confusion. She tilted her head, as if to ask him to continue.

"Aura is the manifestation of our souls." He stated, staring into her eyes.

Her expression changed to one of surprise, she was caught off guard by the sudden subject change. After recovering a few seconds later, she slowly nodded her head.

"That's common knowledge. But, did you know that... our Auras also carry our feelings?" She raised her eyebrow, prompting him to continue. "Disappointment, surprise, doubt, suspicion, these are all contained within your Aura when you feel them."

Her eyes started to widen as realization hit her. This was the first time she had heard of anything like this. So if she hadn't heard of it before, how did this young man? Ren's voice interrupted her thoughts, something that would normally annoy her, but now... it didn't annoy her at all.

"You should understand though, this isn't something just anyone can do. It requires years of training, meditation, and mastery of your own Aura. Even then, it would take many more years of training to use the technique on the level I displayed."

Well that was a bummer. After hearing of it, it sounded like a lot of fun, just the thing to cure her boredom. But now, she was being told that she wouldn't be able to even try it. That, was what led to her resting her chin in her palm, a frown planted firmly on her face.

Ren couldn't help but smile at her pouting face. It was just... so... ADORABLE! Seeing her like that brought back memories of Nora when she got all pouty over something silly. She turned her head to look at him, and seeing the smile on his face, she puffed her cheeks out in anger, which only made her cuter. Seeing that his smile only grew, she playfully smacked the back of his head.

He sighed, shaking his head before looking back towards her. Feeling his gaze on her, she turned her head toward him raising an eyebrow. He didn't say anything, all he did was hold his hand out for her to grab. She stared at it for several seconds, confused. When she shifted her gaze to his face, he gave a small nod. She placed her hand atop of his, still very confused. He lightly squeezed her cold hand, enveloping it in the warmth of his, a feeling she found quite... pleasant.

"Pay attention now." He said in his calm voice again.

He closed his eyes and started taking deep breaths. She couldn't help but stare at his face, it somehow produced a calmness within her, a calm she hadn't felt before. Something had come over her and she had no idea what it was, but whatever it was... it wasn't really that bad. If she was being entirely honest, she actually enjoyed it, whatever it was.

She felt a peculiar sensation, starting at her hand and spreading throughout the rest of her body. The feeling caused her to, reluctantly and disappointingly, shift her gaze to her hand. Her mouth fell open slightly. Why? Purple energy flowed from his hand, through hers, then throughout her body. She recognized this purple energy to be his Aura. All she could do was smile, for this was also something she never knew of... sharing your Aura with another. No, it was more than that. If she were to describe it, "The feeling of someone's soul within her", was the best way to do so. It was a very... pleasant feeling.

"Now, try to feel." Ren whispered this vague instruction to her, yet she somehow understood what he meant.

She focused on the numerous people walking around in front of her, trying to 'feel', and she could. She felt desperation, pride, disappointment. It felt really... strange. It was like she could feel these things, but also like she wasn't feeling them, it was truly an indescribable feeling. And just like she thought, it did cure her boredom.

"Now let's take it a bit further." He said, taking a few deep breaths.

Just like that, the feeling changed slightly. She could still feel all those things, but she could also feel the origin of them too. Disappointment toward a team that lost, desperation to win against some other team, pride in their strength. Now she knew how he could practically read her mind.

"Okay, I think that's enough." Ren whispered, having his Aura flow back into him, releasing her hand afterward.

'Aww, spoilsport.' She sighed, going back to resting her chin in her palm, but this time with a smile.

"Sorry, but it is exhausting to do that." He explained.

'Yeah, yeah.' She thought, causing Ren to give a light chuckle again. 'That's a cute laugh.' She looked at him with a mischievous smile as she thought that.

"I'm sure your laugh would be cute too."

'Really? That's your reply? You could have just told me I was cute.' She rolled her eyes.

"Do you want me to call you cute?" He raised an eyebrow as he asked that.

'I don't really care.' She lied, looking away from him.

They just sat there in pleasant silence, enjoying each others presence for several minutes. He turned his head to her, his gaze causing her to look at him as well.

"You know, I still remember that disappointment over my performance in the battle."

'Oh yeah? Well I hope you don't expect an apology, because I'm not going to. You were horrible in that match. I don't even know how you got into beacon with those skills.'

"Yeah, I guess I did do pretty bad."

'Yeah, all that training for your Aura ability, you must have really slacked off on your combat training.'

She could feel the grin on his face, she didn't even need to look, but she still did. This boy was confusing, what about that sentence could have been funny enough to grin at. She tilted her head and asked.

'What?'

"I'm going to let you in on a secret... I actually performed poorly on purpose."

'What?' Her face scrunched in confusion.

"I'm actually a bit better than that."

'Then why did you do really bad?'

"I don't want anyone to see much of my capabilities."

'Why?'

"I don't want the spotlight."

'Really?'

"That's one of the reasons."

'Doesn't seem like the best reason...'

"It wouldn't necessarily be a good spotlight..." The boy mumbled.

'What does that mean?'

The teen looked at her, almost as if he was debating whether or not he should expand upon it. After a few seconds, he gave a light shake of his head as he said...

"It's nothing."

She narrowed her eyes as she stared at his face... as she studied his face. She was trying to get a read off of him, unfortunately for her, he wasn't that easy to read. He normally kept his face expressionless, distanced from any form of emotion. Even when he smiled, unlike a normal person that used more than just their lips to smile, for him, the act of smiling was raising the corners of his lips. Many interpret those kind of smiles as fake smiles. But what of this boy's smiles? Were they fake, or real? Perhaps that was just how he smiled, or perhaps... She really wasn't sure, this boy was a bit of a mystery. A mystery that might be more than a little fun to unravel.

'You really are an interesting man, Lie Ren.' She gave a small smile as she thought that.

"Thank you very much, Neo." He bowed his head in gratitude.

'So, you're strong, huh?' A mischievous grin found it's way onto her face as she thought that.

"I'm probably not as strong as you, if that's where you were going with this."

'You said "probably", that means that there's also a chance that you are.'

"That is a very small possibility. After all, I'm only a first year student."

At that moment, Ren's scroll started beeping. He opened it up and read through a message. When he finished, he closed the scroll, sighed, and looked at Neo.

"I'm sorry, but it looks like I have to go."

She frowned, she was really enjoying his company.

"It was a pleasure to meet you."

'It was a pleasure to meet you too.'

"I hope we may meet again someday." And with that, he got up and left her there alone.

It would seem that something fun had been waiting for her on the fair grounds all along. A boy by the name of Lie Ren, had shown her something very interesting. Had allowed her to experience new things, including a new feeling she still didn't know the name of, she probably never would. He also had a conversation with her, something she could never do. Yeah, she could communicate with other people, but this was like an actual conversation. Yup, this was an interesting young man alright.

'Wait,' Then she realized something. 'Did he call me Neo earlier?'

She didn't use her real name, her and Cinder didn't... yet, Ren used her real name. She couldn't keep the smile from coming. What else did this young man know about her? Just the thought of him knowing so much more about her was very... exciting.

'A very interesting young man indeed.'

She noticed something else as well... Her bloodlust was definitely gone... for now anyways.

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 **A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this story. And I'm sure you will all agree with me that Ren was more than disappointing in that match.**

 **And yes, I do ship Ren and Neo. Why? Because someone has to.**

 **I was way to excited for this story, and thus, only gave it a once over before posting it. I know that isn't a good idea, and I wouldn't recommend for anyone else to, but I was way to excited about this one.**

 **And remember, oneshot, no continuation from me. Well... bye.**

 **12/16/16, I added a little bit more dialogue and such... I didn't really do too much more.**


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